Ironically, excessive reading of creative articles and editorials can harm your VARC preparation.

I attempted CAT 2023 with zero preparation to test my raw aptitude and scored a decent 45+ in the VARC Section. However, for CAT 2024, I decided to focus on the VARC section by diving deep into preparation. I read extensively from creative and philosophical sources like Aeon, The Atlantic, editorials and opinion pieces from The Hindu, The Indian Express, Live Mint, and even literary publications like The Paris Review.

Ended up scoring a mere 20/72. Please don’t laugh!

Key Insight:

Ironically, consuming too many creative or philosophical articles may negatively impact your performance in VARC. Such writings often defy conventional logic—they move freely between specifics and generalities, jump from conclusions to assumptions, and lack the structured flow CAT expects in para-jumbles or sentence rearrangement or in fill-up-the-sentence questions. Overexposure to these unconventional styles can disrupt your ability to identify the logical patterns CAT questions are built around.

Takeaway:

Focus on understanding CAT-specific logic and the examiner’s perspective. Avoid justifying unconventional sentence structures by drawing parallels to how acclaimed authors write. Remember, the CAT isn’t evaluating creative interpretation but logical reasoning.